Why does everything get so complicated?
by lotrharrypotter3
Summary: Well this is a story about two girls - Grace and Nessa, who gets into ME. Grace has a big secret which she hides from her best friend, while Nessa is enjoying the time in her favorite book. Typical kind of story with 10 and 11th walker and Legomance :D :D Please give it just a chance :D
1. Portals don't exist

**A/N: Heyo^^ :D So this is a story that I'm working on for quite some time with my best friend (a.k.a Nessa) and now we decided to post it here ^^ She don't have profile here so I'm posting it from mine (I hope it's allowed here.. )**

**It's not mine, nor hers first fic but I've never post any of my others here (and most likely I won't, at least not from what I've wrote so far.. )**

**So shortly the story is about two girls - Grace and Nessa. Grace comes from Middle-Earth (you'll see later) with her grandmother. They both live almost peacefully in small town where Grace meets Nessa - nice but reckless and crazy girl who often falls in all kinds of trouble. One day Grace decides to ignore her grandmother's advices and makes on first sight a little mistake which changes everything for the two girls. 10 and 11th walkers and possibly Legolas/OC. (Yeah, we know that everyone is already sick of all those Legomances and girls which get stuck into ME but that still won't stop us :D )**

**This story is against my method of writing and posting because we've written only a few chapters yet and I hate to post unfinished stories but however.. I doubt that anyone would read it anyway so.. here we go.. :D We're ready for everything (critics most likely..) so feel free to review.. ;)) I'm already writing something like a prequel but it is about the events during "The Hobbit" so most likely I won't post it before the third movie is on :DD (Of course I like the book more and I'll try to keep to it but I'll need all the movies for some things in it.. )**

**Disclaimer: We don't own Middle-Earth or any of its characters. Everything belongs to the amazing and incredible J. R. R. Tolkien :))**

Grace's POV

It's Halloween and most people are getting ready for tonight. Today at school Nessa didn't stop talking about the tonight's party at Martin, her best friend. Obviously she is very exited. She is planning everything perfectly well. The party is going to be at his house which is placed outside the city but not very far from it, too. Most of my school mates are going to be there and it's going to be really fun but unfortunately I can't go. Violette, my grandmother thinks that it is unwise, reckless and dangerous to go out on Halloween nights, especially out of the city, because there is some kind of portal that forms every year on this date between Earth and Middle-Earth. Before more than 20 years we lived there but we moved onto Earth because she wanted me to be away from.. actually I'm not so sure.. she never speaks about it but when I ask her she always says 'For good or bad, you will understand one day'. You see she always talks really weird and mystical but I always believe her because she had lived many centuries and knows a lot. Now you might be very curious about what exactly are we and I will tell you, but please promise that you won't say anyone, especially Nessa.

Violette comes from very old wizard race. Immortal, some believe that they were once elves or something similar, though I don't believe it much. They lived on Middle-Earth before many years ago but most of them weren't good and used their power unwisely and for very bad things. The other races rose up against them and many of them were defeated. Violette, however is NOT bad but after all the battles she decided that it is better to take a step back so there aren't s lot of people who knows about her. Though all of my family members are immortal due to the fact that they're coming from this Wizard race, only Violette and I were the one who had shown kind of magical powers. That's the reason why I've been always kept away from almost everything and everyone. It is believed that although Violette and I are good, those kind of powers aren't given to us with good aims. I've lived with her almost all of my live and she'd tried to teach me to use them and there was kind of success, though not much..

Okay, I think that's enough for you to know for now, later the things will get cleaner, I hope. Now let's get on with the story..

As I was watching TV and I was thinking about how to tell Ness that I can't go to the party tonight without telling her the truth, my phone rang. It was her.

"Hello" I said and after a second I heard the familiar voice of my friend " Hey Grace, It's Nessa. I was wondering are we still going tonight? It's going to be great! Everyone will be there!.." Okay, I guess that's the moment I have to tell her that I can't. I hate to kill her enthusiasm but she needs to know now. "Hey Grace? Are you still there?" I heard her again. Looks like I had been silence for more time that I thought.

"Yeah.. I'm still here"

"Great!" Nessa answered. "So what about tonight? I was thinking about the costumes and I think that I'm going to dress like.." I didn't here the rest of the sentence because I heard the door opening.

"Look Ness, I have to go now. I promise I'll call ya after a bit, okay?" I asked and hung the phone before I had hear her answer.

It was Violette.

"Oh, Grace. You're here!" She said like she was surprised by that.

"Where else can I be?" I asked without any enthusiasm. I'm sure that there's no way that any portals are opening tonight. We might come here on the same date but from what I know of Violette, which I'm sure is a lot, she can open any kind of portal wherever she wants.

"Look, you might be sad but you know that you must not go out tonight because.." She started but I cut her off.

"Yes, I know magical portals. You're telling the same story every time."

She looked upset by my sudden outbreak. "You know it's for your own sake, right?" She asked with not-so-soft tone.

"No, I actually don't! You never tell me anything!" I yelled.

"I will, when the time come!" She yelled back. It wasn't usual for her to lose her politeness and wise tone and words like this but I could tell that recently she was quite nervous about something.

"So never?" I asked with sarcasm. I maybe shouldn't say it because suddenly she looked really angry. I felt the ground under me shaking and after moment it seamed like the day had passed by very quickly and now outside was moonless night. Her voice became ethereal and I felt a strange wave of coldness running down my back. "If you think that all this is some kind of joke you may feel free to do whatever you want but you will take care of consequences on your own after that!" her voice echoed in the room. I was a bit of mischief sometimes and I didn't listen much but I wasn't the kind of person who would really go against maybe the only person who really cared about him's will. I felt the anger running through my veins but I stayed quiet and just muttered through my teeths one little "Sorry".

All of the sudden again, everything was back to normal. Violette was calm now.

"Good, now I have to do something before the day is over so I'm leaving for a while. Don't do anything reckless" She said and walked out of the door.

I stayed there, just looking after her for a moment when I felt my phone ringing. I haven't realize that it is still in my hand until now. It was Nessa again.

"Hey, is everything okay? You hung the phone very quickly" she said.

"Yeah, everything is just fine" I answered. After that I stayed silent for a moment before I said "When are we meeting tonight?"

Nessa's POV

I'm soo exited for tonight! Martin is having a party at his place and, of course, I'm there! Everything is going to be so cool! I can't even wait for it! I'll go with Grace, my best friend since I had moved here. Thought she was quite strange, no one, including me, didn't know a lot for her. We only knew that she lives with her grandmother, which is the strangest woman I've ever met! She always act so mystic like she is hiding kind of big secret or something.. However, despite this Grace is an awesome friend! I think that I can tell her almost everything and she will understand me. Actually she knows things that almost no one other knows about me. Like the fact that I'm adopted an my "mother" is always drunk. No one should know it but Grace accepted it without any rude comments.

It was quite hard for me that not only I didn't have a real family but even the one I have isn't right at all.

However, I decided that this year I'm going to dress as Darth Vader. It was a little break from the years that had passed. I was always dressed like an elf. I just loved them! Like the whole Lord of the Rings trilogy! Grace think that it's a little immature to be so into a fictional story but I really love it! She always says that the things in Middle-Earth aren't like this really but what do she knows about it? Have she really even watched the movies!?

By the way it's a quite good idea to came into touch with her soon so we could make sure that everything tonight is going to be perfect. I found her in my notebook with names and called her.

"Hello" I heard her voice through the phone.

" Hey Grace, It's Nessa. I was wondering are we still going tonight? It's going to be great! Everyone will be there!" I started explaining passionately but soon I understood that she's not listening. "Hey Grace? Are you there?'' I asked.

After a long pause I heard my friend's not-so-fine's voice "Yeah.. I'm still here" Looks like something was troubling her serious but I decided to go on.

"Great! So what about tonight? I was thinking about the costumes and I think that I'm going to dress like.." I didn't have the time to finish because she quickly cut me of.

"Look Ness, I have to go now. I promise I'll call ya after a bit, okay?" I smiled a little after hearing the way she called me 'Ness'. She almost always called me like that. However, at this moment I felt like the last thing I should do is laughing because obviously something was going wrong with my nest friend. In one moment I though she's gonna tell me that she won't come but I didn't understood am I right because she hung down the phone before that. It would be best if I wait about 10 minutes and then call again if she haven't call yet. Once again I thought how strange is this girl.. like there's kinda magic aura around her. Meh.. I'm sure it's nothing to worry about.. probably she just saw something interesting on the TV.. or radio.. or Violette had came home.. or something else had appeared.. The more I thought the more I wanted to call again. However, after I waited the ten minutes to last I immediately picked the number again.

After a second she picked it up. "Hey is there anything wrong? You hung the phone so quickly" I said.

"Yeah everything is just fine" she answered. By her tone I could say it was a lie but I haven't got the time to answer 'cause all of the sudden I heard her asking "When are we meeting tonight?" YES! WOO! She's coming!

"Let's meet at my place after half an hour?" I said'

"Sounds great, bye for now" she said before she hung the phone once again.

Grace's POV

Nessa and I are walking on the dark road. Her costume is so ridiculous.. Darth Vader? Really Ness? Though my is not much better - when I showed up her house without a costume she just freaked out. She almost killed me and she started yelling that I can't show up on Halloween's party like this. Ugh.. even Violette's screams are better that Ness' screams. However, she quickly found something for me.. A clown's costume.. She even gave me a wig and painted my face! Please shout me before someone see me like this!

Though I know that Violette is going to kill me after this I can't say that I'm not exited. I haven't actually been on other Halloween party before. Maybe I really shoudn't do this but please, I'm not a child anymore! Portals.. yeah right.. and I'm looking like a super model right now..

The night is silent without many people going around. Besides we were already out of the city. There are a lot of threes around and there aren't any cars. Before some time Nessa and I would talk but now we both were quite silent, enjoying the peace around us.

All of the sudden I saw a bright light from somewhere between the threes and from the movement next to me I could say that Nessa had seen it, too. She started going towards it but I placed my hand on her.

"What the heck are you doing? Let's move on" I told her.

"Are you crazy?" She asked "Let's see what is it"

"No!" I said pulling her arm "Let's go!''

"What are you scared?" She smiled at me "It's just a light, let's go to check it out" she said cheerfully but then she froze by the look on my face. "Ness, I don't think we need to go" I said "It's already coming" Then all of the sudden a really bright light illuminated everything around us. Now Violette's ' nonsenses' didn't sound so ridiculous to me..

Third's person POV

Frodo was sitting in the Prancing Pony with Sam, Pippin and Merry, waiting for Gandalf to appear. However, the pub manager had said that he hasn't came from a long time. He was getting really nervous because he knew that the wizard won't just miss an important meeting like that unless if he wasn't unable to come by a serious trouble. By the time he was thinking he suddenly heard his cousin Peregrin Took's voice, who was explaining to a bunch of people about him.

"Sure I know a Baggins! He's over there! Frodo Baggins, he's my cousin.. " Frodo quickly started going towards his friend, wanting to stop him, but he was pushed from the crowd. He fell and the Ring of Power flew from his hand and felt on his finger. When he disappeared in front of the shocked crowd, however, something else made the audience look away. In the center of the pub there were two girls. They were both really strange dressed - the one was all in black and she even had a black mask, and the other was with colorful clothes and her face was painted. Everyone reminded quiet, forgetting about the poor hobbit. Then one of the girls spoke.

"Crap! What the heck are we going to do now?!"


	2. In the Prancing Pony

**A/N: Thanks to Doctor Legolas and LadyThunderstorm for the Follows/favorites and Doctor Legolas again, for the review Made my day ^^**  
**So here's the next chapter It's mainly Nessa and third person's POVs Because the first was mainly about Grace, but there's also Grace's POV, too.**  
**Sorry for the many stupid mistakes in the last chapter but I was sleeping when I was translating it from my language to English. :\ Anyway, here we go.**

**Disclaimer: We do not own LOTR or it's characters. We only own Grace and Nessa..**

Third person's POV

Strider was sitting in one dark corner at the Prancing Pony, watching the four hobbits carefully. He knew who are those hobbits and that one of them had an important task, though he didn't know which. When one of them suddenly disappeared, he quickly stood up and started making his way towards the place when the hobbit was last seen. He had to get him out of the crowded place unseen as soon as possible but he wasn't sure how it's going to happen with all those people around. Then, however, something like a great thunder illuminated the pub and out of nowhere there were two figures standing in the center. They both were girls, he assumed, though one of them was with big black mask, covering her face, and the other was with a lot of strange paintings and colorful wig.

"Crap! What are we going to do now?" yelled the one with the black mask.

The other looked calmer and quickly stood up, pulling the other with her. All the eyes were on them now. Strider took this as a chance to get to the Halfling, so he quickly moved through the people, catching him and pulling him to his room.

Nessa's POV

While I was arguing with Grace, there was a bright light and after moment we were in the center of a dark place, full of people.

"Crap! What are we going to do now?" I said without thinking much. Grace obviously was more calm so she quickly stood, pulling me up from the floor with her. Everyone was staring at us. They were all dressed really strange, in medieval clothes and most of them were armed, too. It took me about half minute to realize where were we.

"Grace, Grace!" I started pulling my friend's cloth whispering exited "I think we're in Middle-Earth!"

Grace looked more shocked than surprised "I get it Ness" she whispered back.

"Oh my God! Can you believe it? We're in Middle-Earth" I was already screaming but it seemed that she didn't listen me. "Grace?" I looked at her. I was getting scared. She was never so silent before.

"This shouldn't happen. I'm awful" She finally spoke but more to herself than to me.

"What are you talking about?" I asked confused. "It's amazing! Now we can meet the Fellowship, we can visit Rivendell, The Shire.. we're going to see Legolas!" I was so happy about the last one! I mean that's Legolas after all.. who wouldn't want to see him. Well, it looks like Grace was more than unhappy to meet him.

"Ness, we're in a movie! Do you think I care who I'm gonna see? I just want to get home!'' She suddenly shouted and most of the people around us jumped. Then one angry man came to us and I realized that he was the Prancing Pony's keeper. Then this mean we're in the Prancing Pony! The smile on my face grew even bigger than before but it quickly disappeared when the man reached us.

"What are you two doing! You're scaring the people! First the hobbit and now you!" he started shouting at us but Grace, like more tactful, quickly responded him.

"We are really sorry for the trouble we made, we did not meant harming you or anyone here. Please forgive us." I was quite impressed by her politeness.

''No problem girls but please do not do this again" the man was now calmer.

'I promise you would not see us again here" I spoke before Grace this time "We just came to meet one.. people" When Grace heard this she gave me a confused luck and pulled me aside.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"We're in Lord of the rings! We have to meet Frodo and the others!'' I said like it was something obvious.

"Do we?" She asked.

"What else do you suggest, genius?" I answered with sarcasm. For a moment I thought she was going to say something but then she just sighed and said "Fine" We quickly went to the pub's keeper and asked him where can we find Strider. He didn't looked very pleased that the "strange girls" are still there but he assumed that if he told us we might get out sooner so he directed us. We climbed the stairs and we found our way to the room from where we could hear Aragorn talking with the hobbits. Grace was about to knock on the door but I decided that it would be way more quicker if we just entered so I opened the door without much thinking which made everyone in jump.

"Don't worry we're here to help you!" I said smiling. Grace gave me an "are you crazy" luck but she also smiled, though it was obviously fake smile.

After the shock at first the other finally calmed down and Aragorn asked us "Who are you, where do you come from and how much do you know?"

I opened my mouth to answer but Grace kicked me in the ribs and spoke. "We're coming from very far, I'm Grace and this is Nessa. We know more enough and we wish to help you if you would accept our help. "

"And how do we know that you're not lying?" this time spoke Frodo.

"We are friends of Gandalf the Grey and Lady Violette" Grace answered. The hobbits didn't seemed to understand but Aragorn just nodded looking at Grace like he have met her before. Okay, the thing were getting more and more strange.. I didn't know that she have such a great knowledge for Middle-Earth but who was this "Lady Violette" and why it seemed like Strider knew her. However, Grace gave me a look like she meant 'not now' so I decided that it would be best if I just kept quiet for the moment.

"I believe that we can trust them" Aragorn said to the hobbits. "I have to look around you all stay here and do not go out" He then turned to all of us. We nodded and he went out of the room. Everyone was quiet for a long time, not knowing what to say. The hobbits were sitting on the bed or chairs and Grace was in one corner thinking about something. Luckily we were wearing our normal clothes under the costumes so we went to the bathroom to change and wash the paints. Now Grace was with her dark blue jeans and striped top, playing with her black hair, lost in thoughts. I didn't know what is she so worried about. This was something so great!

"What are those things you were wearing" Pippin finally spoke, looking at both of us curiously and then looking at the costumes, placed on a chair. I smiled with a big smile.

"I wore a Darth Vader costume and she was like a clown." I answered.

"What is Darth Vader?" asked Merry then.

"Well, he is from Star Wars" I said but then I came up with the idea that they didn't know what is 'Star Wars' so I added "He is really famous from where we come"

"And where is that?" asked Pippin again.

"We will talk about it later" Grace said turning everyone in her direction. "Now there are more important things". What was happening with her? She was so serious and looks like she was trying to decide something important.

"Grace, is everything okay?" I asked confused.

"No, we're in Middle-Earth, Ness, how could it be okay? We can't get home!" she shouted.

"It's not so bad, I've always dreamed to came here and meet the Fellowship and.." I started but she interrupted me.

"Just because you didn't liked your life it don't mean I didn't, too." She said angrily. "Not all of us had so awful lives.." She looked like she wanted to turn her words back right after she said them but it was, too late. I felt the tears from my eyes. I quickly covered my face with my hands and then ran out of the room. On the door I hit something or someone, Strider I think, though I wasn't very sure.

I went down the stairs, running through the confused people, and went out the door. It was cold and I was only with a pair of jeans and a light shirt with white singlet under it but I didn't care. I sat down in front of the place, letting the tears fall. I couldn't believe it. Grace had never said anything about my family or my life. She knew it was painful for me and she was always there to comfort me but without saying a word. Is this what she was thinking actually?

Grace's POV

Nessa ran out the door so quickly that I couldn't apologize. I went after her, meeting Aragorn at the door.

"What happened?" he asked.

"Nothing, don't worry about it. Stay with the hobbits. We're going to come soon." I answered.

"But I wanted to talk with you about so much things" he said. "You just came here with this girl after so much years, you are dressed so ridiculous and now you are saying that you want to help. Where is Lady Violette? Do she knows all those things?" He asked.

"Look, I'm searching about those answers, too. Everything happened so quick.. we are going to talk later and for now, I looked out the door, you don't know me." I said before I went out after Nessa. I have met him before, several times in Rivendell, during my visits there, but also with some other of the Rangers outside the valley. I didn't want Nessa to know this or anything about me and Middle-Earth at all. I wanted to find a way to turn her back on Earth as quick as possible and I think I knew why Violette didn't wanted me to came to Middle-Earth again. I wanted to do and understand so much things that I was about to explode and now this thing with Nessa was just too much, though it was all my fault. Now we had to be in our homes, she might been pretty angry for the skipped party and so would I, but at least we were going to be safe.

Lost in thoughts for I don't know which time this night, I ran out of the pub. My friend was sitting outside, with face buried in her hands and I could tell she was trying not to cry, but it was useless. I sat next to her.

"Ness, you know I didn't meant it, right?" I asked quiet. She didn't respond. "I mean everything is so new to me, both of us actually, that I just said it without much though" I kept talking "I had never meant those things, you know me better than everyone else, please believe me" I was getting more and more sorrowful with every word. She then looked up at me, her hazel eyes still full with tears. There was nothing left from her previous cheerfulness.

"Are you sure?" She asked.

"Of course! Guess I was just too exited to meet the hobbits so I couldn't think properly." Wild smile appeared on her face, which made me guess that this time I had said the right thing. "So are we okay now?" I asked.

"Think we are" she said.

"Let's go then, it's late already and I don't want to meet any ringwraiths tonight"

"Okay" she said cheerfully again.

We went to the room. I assumed we we're just in time because after not more than half an hour we heard blood-freezing sounds and movement from the hobbits' rooms. Most of the hobbits and Nessa were asleep so they were pretty scared but Aragorn and I were expecting it so it wasn't so big shock for us.

"That was it. We're leaving at down" Strider said quiet after a while. We all nodded worried. So it was beginning.

**A/N: God, we think we're writting a lot before we post it here. Then we realize it's not.. :\ :D However, hope you enjoy ^^ **


	3. Unexpected arrival

**A/N: So here's the next chapter^^ Sorry it's so late but I had to translate it and lately I've been very busy and I didn't have time for that :\ Thanks to our beta Nardhwentheelf ^^ You're a really nice and great person :) **

**Okay, so there's just no way I'm not saying this - Did you watched DoS? IT'S AMAZING!I've already started a prequel to this story which takes place during The Hobbit. I think I'll post it here soon..  
Have a nice and extraordinary holidays^^ ;)  
So here's the chapter^^**

**Disclaimer: We DO NOT own LOTR or it's characters, everything belongs to the incredible J.R.R Tolkien, we only own Grace, Nessa and the new character you'll see in this chapter :D **

Grace's POV

We had been travelling for about 5 days. I had the strange feeling that we were not alone and I could tell that Aragorn was feeling it too, though no one was saying anything about it. However, it wasn't an exhausting or very tiring journey, though Nessa's enthusiasm was already long gone. Her excitement and cheerfulness had now been replaced by unstopping complaining. She had decided that she didn't like to sleep on the hard ground or to travel all day without many rests. Though, I have to mention that I was quite impressed by her restraint… for now she was still just muttering under her nose and didn't complain in front of the others.

I had already told her that we shouldn't tell anyone anything about the books or the movies and the plot twists because it could change the story. She wasn't very happy about it but she remained quiet. I was still planning how to tell her about me and everything else. She was my best friend and she had always understood me but I wasn't quite sure she was going to be very happy to hear that I came from her favourite place and I knew most of the people/elves/hobbits/dwarves etc. she had always wanted to meet and I hadn't told her but I didn't have any other choice. No one should know about it.

However, what worried me most was what was going to happen after we reached Rivendell. I was sure that Violette already knew what had happened - because of me, most likely - and she surely wasn't happy at all. And the other thought that didn't give me peace was – what are we going to do next? I wasn't sure when the portal would open again, maybe next Halloween? I was also afraid that Nessa might decide to do something stupid like join the Fellowship or something.. She surely wouldn't stay just like that. It was like a dream come true for her to be here and join them, but I wasn't quite sure that she realised the danger. I mean, come on, she can't fight, she can't take much care of herself, she can't even sleep on the ground for 5 days! What about for almost a year? I was really afraid of what could happen.

"Hey Grace," in that moment she interrupted my thoughts. "I think soon the moment with the ringwraiths is going to.." She started but I stopped her, not-too-gently.

"SHUT UP, NESS!" I said loudly, poking her in the ribs. She gasped but didn't say anything and just looked at me angrily.

"You know, it won't hurt if you tried to be more gentle or nice sometimes." She said.

"And you could be more tactful. I told you something." I answered her. I was thinking the same thing as her. Soon the moment when the wraiths attack the hobbits would come and where the Which King stabs Frodo. I wasn't really sure what was going to happen. I would try to protect him if I could, though I haven't got my weapons with me. Nessa would probably also do something.. stupid, most likely.

"Okay, sorry." She said. "I was just thinking, what are we going to do?"

I gasped. "We can't just watch but we can't do much, either. We don't have weapons, we can't fight and it can also.." this time she was the one who interrupted me.

"Change the plot twist, I know" she rolled her eyes.

"Right. So be very careful. " I said and went to catch up with the others. We were about 10 meters behind them and it was getting suspicious. Although Merry and Pippin had accepted us quite quickly, and it didn't seemed like Frodo had something bad in mind for us, Sam was suspicious about everything. He still didn't trust Aragorn and what about us? We had just arrived from nowhere and honestly, I would also be doubting us in his place.

I quickly came up next to Merry and Pippin and looked behind to see if Nessa was also coming. But she was still walking slowly, not caring that she might get lost. Her hair was shining in the sun, showing that it was actually a dark red colour, though at first you might think that it's black when you see it.

It was almost night when we decided to stop. Okay, now I was nervous. I didn't know what was going to happen. I was afraid that Nessa would try to do something for sure (and fail horribly).Though obviously she couldn't do much and I was afraid that it could end really bad, not only for her but for everyone. Also, I felt like a traitor because we promised to help them and now we, or at least I, were just going to stay there and watch. It wasn't fair but there was really nothing that we could do.

We ate our supper silently. No one was in mood for talking, even the hobbits didn't interrupt the silence. It was so depressing; everyone was lost in his own thoughts, and didn't want to share with the others. Soon, everyone started preparing for sleep. Then Aragorn spoke, breaking the silence at last.

"I'm going to take a look around." He said "You all stay here." I didn't know why, but I felt like his last sentence was mostly directed at Nessa and I. He gave each hobbit a knife and then turned to me and Ness. "I'm sorry but I do not have any other weapons except these," he glanced over at the knives "my sword and my bow." he continued, handing me the simple black bow. I was really surprised but not even half as surprised as my best friend. Her jaw almost fell to the floor.

"There is no need.." I started but the ranger interrupted me.

"It is only for safety. I hope that there will be no need to use it tonight or any other until the end of our journey, but in case something happens, please try to do your best to keep the others safe as long as you can." Seriously? That's what I call irony. The 'journey' was only just beginning; now I had a weapon but I shouldn't use it because it was going to change everything and along with everything else, Nessa was looking at me with a questioning expression on her face. I just gave her the same look, hoping that it didn't look too suspicious.

After a few moments, Aragorn was gone into the dark night. Everyone continued preparing for bed and before long we were all lying down. I was trying to stay awake and I could tell that Nessa was doing the same, but we both were quite tired and soon we were taken by restless sleep. We both jumped wide awake from Frodo's shouting to the other hobbits about the fire.

"What are you doing?" asked the hobbit, panicked.

"We saved some for you, Mr. Frodo..." started Sam but Frodo just ignored him in his rush to put out the fire.

"Put it out, you fools!" he said trampling on the fire. Then we heard it – the howl of the approaching enemies.

Nessa's POV

I didn't meant to fall asleep that night, but I was so tired that I couldn't help it. However, I was soon awoken by Frodo's terrified shouts at the other members of our company. So this is it – the moment I was most scared about. The Nazgul were here! We all got up and went to the edge of the cliff; the hobbits having already prepared their knives and Grace the bow, just in time to see the approaching wraiths. It looked even more terrifying than in the movie. Then we suddenly heard the sound of footsteps behind us. We all jumped, turning around and in that moment Grace released an arrow, which she was holding. We heard another scream, but not like the Nazguls'. This one was a girl's scream and it was coming from the person which Grace just shot in the leg. No, it just couldn't be true!

"Pam!? Oh my God! Is that you?" I asked the girl who was sitting on the ground, pressing her injured leg against her chest, trying not to cry from the pain. She was a girl from our school back on the Earth. She wasn't our friend or anything. You know, she was the kind of popular kid at school who think that the world exists only for them, but actually no one can really stand them except their 'personal puppies' who run after them and try to do everything to please them. It felt so strange to think about those things. Like it was so long ago when we were at school and our biggest problems were that there were too many 'Pams'. However, it wasn't the moment to think of that.

The girl looked over at each of us, quickly returning her gaze to Grace, who seemed even more shocked than her. "Please just don't kill me!" she said to my friend. "I'll explain everything to you.." but before the end of her sentence we heard another shout from the Ringwraiths.

"Not now! We have to get out of here!" Grace spoke as she putted the bow on her back and nodded at me towards Pam. I immediately understood what my friend meant and then we both quickly went to her, lifting her from the ground and placing her hands on our shoulders. Her leg was bleeding and she was sobbing.

All of us ran to the centre of the destroyed building and formed something of a circle around Frodo. The fear was growing and for first time in about a week, I felt that I wanted to be home, sitting in front of the TV and complaining that nothing interesting is happening, but at least I would be safe. Pam had already forgotten to cry and everyone was looking around, expecting the enemies from every corner. Then they came from the dark. Five shadows - like ghosts. Everyone stood in front of Frodo, trying to protect him. Grace slowly pushed Pam's hand aside, preparing an arrow. The Witch King drew his sword, stepping towards us and so did the other wraiths. I could feel Pam shaking next to me, now she was sobbing even more than she had when Grace shot her.

"Back you devils!" shouted Sam, attacking, or at least trying to attack the Nazgul, but he was pushed aside almost immediately and so were Merry and Pippin. Grace released an arrow which hit the Witch King right in the place where its heart should be, but it was like the wraith didn't feel anything at all. It continued walking towards the poor hobbit. I tried to get in front of him but it was hard to move with another person's weight on me so I didn't help much. Frodo started walking backward when he dropped his sword and fell to the ground. I quickly placed Pam, who was almost unable to move right now, on the floor and tried to get to Frodo again, but then I was surrounded by the other wraiths. I didn't have anything to protect myself with and I thought 'this is the end' but then an arrow flew close to my ear and when I turned my gaze, I saw Grace not far behind me, still shooting arrows at the wraiths. Thought it wasn't hurting them, the four Nazgul turned in her direction and slowly started to approach her. She soon figured out how useless is was to try to hurt them with the bow and started looking around for a better weapon. She then spotted the sword which Frodo had dropped on the floor and quickly picked it up, just in time to block one of the Nazguls' blows. Wow. I didn't know she had skill with swords, or bows, or anything at all, for that matter.

Then I heard Frodo's scream and turned my gaze to the place when he and the Nazgul were, though the hobbit still had the ring on so I couldn't actually see him. In that moment, Aragorn approached, with his sword in one hand and a torch in the other, driving the Nazgul away. While he was fighting the wraiths with Grace's help, Frodo removed the ring from his finger, still screaming in pain. The rest of the hobbits quickly rushed to his side and so did I, forgetting about Pam, who was still standing, covering her eyes with her hands and muttering something like 'It's just a dream, it's just a dream!' The ghosts were soon expelled and now Aragorn and Grace also came next to Frodo.

"He has been stabbed by a Morgul blade." said the ranger, grabbing the weapon which turned into ash in his hand. "This is beyond my skill, he needs Elvish medicine." he continued, raising the hobbit from the ground. We all followed him but not before Grace and I had taken Pam by the hands again. Aragorn then turned to us, surprised.

"Who is she and what had happened to her?" he asked without stopping.

"A girl from our previous world." Grace said. "I… I shot her"

"And how did she get here?" he asked again, ignoring the information about her being shot for now.

"That's what we all want to know." I said, and we all turned our gazes towards her, except Strider, who was walking in front of us with Frodo.

**A/N: Okay, it's really stupid that we involved another character from The Earth but we had to. You'll see later in the story ;) **


	4. Finally in Rivendell

**A/N: Hi everyone! Happy new year to all of you, who read this, I hope that it's going to be a successful and nice year for everybody.  
Here's the new chapter, it's not very focused on Pam and how did she came to Middle-Earth but Nessa understands something very important so we hope that it's not so unnecessary chapter. :D  
Lot's of 'thanks' to our beta Nardhwentheelf, I would have send you chocolate if I knew your adress ;) **

**Disclaimer: We do not own Lord of the rings, though we wish we did :D . We only own Grace, Nessa and Pam. **

**Enjoy^^ **

Grace's POV

"Where is this place and how did I get here?" Pam asked again, like she had been for the past few hours.

"We will tell you everything later, now you explain what you remember." I said, bored.

"Well, I've told you all I remember," she said. We were trying to get to Rivendell as soon as possible. Frodo was getting worse with every minute and we hadn't had any rest for the past day or two. Everyone was hurrying, though Pam wasn't helping us a lot. She still couldn't walk, or at least didn't try, and Nessa and I had to carry her. She wasn't very heavy but it was still slowing us down a lot. From what she had told us, she was going to Martin's party when she saw the bright light which brought Nessa and I here. The next second, she found herself in Middle-Earth, though she didn't know it. She's still not entirely sure where she is or who all the people are but she knew she had seen them somewhere before. However, back to the story, she wasn't sure what to do, but then she saw all of us leaving of the Prancing Pony and decided to follow us. That explained some things, like why I had the strange feeling that someone was following us, but despite that, a lot of questions came to mind, though I wasn't sure if it was the right time to ask and I wanted to talk with Nessa first.

"Okay... Please just tell us if you remember something else." said Nessa. We were walking behind the others because of Pam but I didn't mind because it was easier to talk with her this way.

"Now you tell me." She said. "Where am I and what are you doing here as well?"

"Welcome to Middle-Earth!" Nessa said loudly and everyone turned in our direction. She was smiling widely but it wasn't fun at all for Pam.

"Really funny. Now seriously – where am I?" Pam asked, a little annoyed. Thought she asked again I could say that she believed Nessa.

"Middle-Earth." I also said and though the situation wasn't funny at all I felt the smile on my face when I saw Pam's grimace.

"What are you both so happy for!? We're in a movie!" She started yelling.

"Hey! It's based on a great book! You know what a book is, right?" said Nessa. She really loved the books and couldn't imagine that someone might not know about them.

"Ness, not now." I warned my friend. She didn't liked Pam very much and was trying to start a fight with her every second but then we heard Aragorn's worried voice.

"Hurry up!" he said.

"We're six days away from Rivendell. He'll never make it!" said Sam. We were almost running now, or at least the others were running.

Soon we stopped. It was night again and Frodo was worse.

"Is he going to die?" asked Pippin, worried.

"He's passing through the shadow world." said Aragorn, "soon he'll become a wraith like them."

"Will he?" Pam asked Nessa quietly. Despite that she disliked her much more than me, Pam preferred to talk to her because she was still too 'shocked' because I shot her. Okay, I probably won't trust a person who tried to kill me too but this was just absurd. She looked at me as I was about to attack her every moment.

"Shh.. Wait and you'll see." whispered my friend. Pam was about to say something but then we heard the Nazguls' screams.

"They're close." said Merry.

"Sam! Do you know the Athelas plant?" asked the Ranger.

"Athelas?" asked the hobbit, confused.

"Kingsfoil." explained Aragorn.

"Kingsfoil," repeated the hobbit understanding. "aye, it's a weed"

"It might help to slow the poison. Hurry!" Aragorn told him and both he and the hobbit disappeared into the forest.

"And now what?" Pam asked again.

"Just wait and you'll see." I rolled my eyes.

After a while we saw a familiar, or at least for Nessa and I, figure approach. It was Arwen. She knelt down and started muttering to Frodo in Elvish. He began to relax.

"Who is she?" asked Merry.

"She's an elf.." answered Sam with awe.

"Is she?!" asked Pam, still not fully believing about being in Middle-Earth and everything else, despite the fact that she was seeing it with her eyes. However, no one answered her but, surprisingly, she remained quiet.

"He's fading." said Arwen, turning to Aragorn. "He's not going to last. We must get him to my father!"

"Who is he?" Of course Pam couldn't stay quiet for long. Again, there was no answer.

"I've been looking for you for two days." said Arwen, and then she looked at Nessa, Pam and I. "Thought I didn't expected to find you here, either." Her last sentence was directed towards us. Her gaze stayed on me for a few moments and I felt a little worried that because she might recognize me but she didn't said anything. "What had happened to her?" She asked, looking at Pam's bandaged leg.

"She shot me!" Pam immediately told her, pointing at me. I rolled my eyes again. It sounded like she was blaming me.

"Too bad that I didn't aimed better, however, the next time I'll be more careful." I muttered under my breath but unfortunately she heard it.

"Did you heard that!? She's threatening me!" She almost yelled.

"You'll survive, don't worry." I told her.

"There are five wraiths behind you." said Arwen when Aragorn put Frodo on the horse's back. "Where are the other four – I don't know"

"_Dartho guin Berian. Rych le ad tolthathon_."_ /Stay with the hobbits. I'll send horses for you/_ said Aragorn.

"_Hon mabathon. Rochoh ellint im_."_ /I will take him. I'm a faster rider/_ replied Arwen. He looked her in the eyes with worry.

"_Andelu I ven_." _/The road is too dangerous/_ he told her.

"_Frodo Fir.. Ae anthradon I hir, tur gwaith nin beriatha hon_." _/If I can cross the river, the power of my people can protect him/_ answered the elf.

"What are they saying?" asked Pippin.

"They're talking about who should take Frodo to Rivendell." I said without thinking.

"How do you know?" Asked Nessa and Pam at the same time.

"Shh.." Someone whispered, just in time.

"I do not fear them." Arwen said to the Ranger softly. Then she got on the horse and rode off with the hobbit.

"What a soap opera!" exclaimed Pam. "Just tell her how you feel about her!" She turned to Aragorn. I rolled my eyes again.. since this girl came here it has become something of a habit for me.. along with the deadly thoughts.

"Don't give the others love advice when you can't keep a boy for more than two weeks." Nessa said to her. That's why I loved her so much. Everyone except Pam laughed. She just glared at her, offended.

Nessa's POV

After six days full of complaining, rolled eyes, laughing and even more complaining we finally reached Rivendell. I've never been so happy in my life. I was going to get rid of Pam and I would probably get the answers to all of my questions.

We were welcomed by Lord Elrond himself who, of course, already knew that we were coming. However, I found it quite strange that he had come to welcome us himself when he probably had a lot of other, more important work to do. He greeted us and called for two she-elves, who took care of Pam, and most importantly, took her away. Everything in Rivendell was so amazing and beautiful, truly you couldn't count the days here, like Bilbo had said to Frodo. Everyone was so nice. I loved every moment of our stay in the valley. My room was just next to Grace's and Pam, thank God, wasn't near us and also, they had told her not to move so her leg would recover fully and we hadn't seen her for the past few days. Frodo was going to wake up soon and we were expecting Gandalf to come any day now but I felt that something was troubling Grace. She was nervous and I didn't see her a lot; she was mostly in her room or was wandering around Rivendell. Wasn't she afraid that she might get lost in this huge place? It was like she was waiting for something... and it wasn't good.

It was late night, maybe around 10p.m, and I couldn't sleep. I was tossing in the bed but sleep just didn't come so I decided to go for a walk. I went outside the room and down the long corridor. I didn't knew where to go so I went to the gardens. I had been walking for about 20 minutes around the beautiful flowers and plants, some of which I'd never seen before, when I saw a familiar figure, sitting on a bench alone and watching the stars.

"What are you doing here so late?" I asked as I sat next to Grace.

"I couldn't sleep. You?" she turned her head to look at me.

"Same." I answered. "What's going on?" I asked her when I looked at her.

"Nothing that you're not aware of." She answered simply.

"No, something troubles your mind. I can see it." She turned towards me with an amused look.

"Why do you sound so Middle-Earth - like?" I grinned. "I thought that since we're in Middle-Earth I can sound more... wise..." I answered her. "Now tell me what's happening." I ignored her attempt to change the conversation.

"It's really nothing Ness." she smiled but it was more like a sad smile.

"You know you can tell me anything." I put my hand on her shoulder.

She took a deep breath. "I'mawitch!" she said so quickly that I hardly even heard it. We both stayed quiet for a while looking one another. Then I burst in laughter.

"Okay, keep your secrets then." I told her. She grinned as well.

"You asked and I told you." She said.

"But I was serious." I pointed out. "Now what's the real problem?" I didn't give up.

"I'm just thinking about what is upon us." She said. "and what we left behind. Do you miss them, Ness? Your family, your friends." It was my turn to sigh.

"Our friends, Grace. They were our friends. And when it comes to family," I looked at her. "you are my only family. You're the one I could count on, I can say anything to you and I know you won't judge me for it. They were only the people I lived with but you've always been my family." I said. She then looked me in the eyes. There were tears in hers.

"Oh, Ness" She said and she pulled me into a bone-breaking hug. "You know that you can count on me for everything, right? I'll always be here for you." I smiled weakly.

"Even if I decide to do something very stupid? Will you be there with me?" I asked.

"You can be sure that I will." She told me.

"Okay, so now tell me. What really troubles you?" I hadn't quit yet.

"I told you, I was just thinking about the things that are upon us – what are we going to do from now on? Will we ever return to Earth and most importantly – will we get rid of Pam?" We both laughed about the last one.

"I hope so. I won't endure her much longer." I said.

"Don't you think that there's something strange about the way she got here?" asked my friend. "There's something not right."

"What do you mean?" I asked, confused.

"Well, first, why was she going to Martin's party? There were going to be unpopular kids and none of her friends. She don't even talk to him and acts like she doesn't know him but she'll go to his party... it's strange." She said. She might have been right. I hadn't thought of this before but now it was making sense. "Second, we arrived here in the evening but she arrived at dawn. That means that she lied to us or that there was another portal that night. But how was it opened?"

"Well, we also don't know how did we got here, right? Maybe it was caused by something. " I guessed.

"But that means that maybe everyone can get here, right? What if Pam's not the only one? What if someone else had also come here?" Now that was strange. "And why hadn't Pam showed herself to us when she saw us? Why did she hide for so long?"

"I don't know Grace. I haven't actually thought about it at all." I admitted.

"I was thinking that maybe Lord Elrond or Gandalf would know but is it wise to ask them now? I mean, I'm not even sure where we should start."

"Why don't we try from the beginning?" I asked, but then another thought hit me. "Grace, you aren't a Lord of the rings fan, how do you know all those things?" At first she didn't answer me.

"Ness, if I told you, you won't believe me." She finally said.

"You've read the books?" I asked as a joke.

"Look, I know that it might sound really strange and you might get a little angry with me but I couldn't tell you before because it was too big a risk, and it still is but I have to let you know.. do you promise that you won't freak out?" She finally asked and she had one of the most serious faces I'd ever seen before.

"OH, MY GOD! You've really read the books!" I exclaimed, exited. "I didn't even knew you could!"

"NESSA!" yelled Grace, offended. "I've read more books than you can even imagine! However, it's not the time for that. What I was going about to say is.." she sighed one more time for this evening. "I'm really a witch.. " she looked at me with an even more serious expression. Seriously? How was she doing it. I looked at her face for about 2 minutes or at least there were only 2 for me. There was no sign of a joke on her face.

"Oh my God! You really are a witch!" I almost whispered at the end.

"Yes.." she said. "big shock I know, I was even more stressed when I heard it for the first time. It comes from my grandmother. That's one of the reasons why I had to leave with her. " she tried to break the ice. "You're not angry or anything right?" she asked, after she didn't get a reply. I felt so strange. First all this Middle-Earth things and now this.. WAIT! Middle-Earth things!?

"Where exactly do you come from?" I almost whispered. I felt like my whole world was falling down around me.

"Middle-Earth" She said and smiled quickly. I felt like the ground was calling me. This was a little too much for me...

"Ness? Are you okay?" she asked, worried when she saw me. "you're getting really pale..."

"Yeah, don't worry. Everything is perfectly fine." I felt like I couldn't even stay still anymore. Everything was so crazy. I felt like my voice was getting slower and it was almost disappearing "Don't worry, I'm just a little dizzy-"

Then I felt like someone turned off the lights and everything became dark.

**A/N: Well, this is it :D Grace finally told Nessa about her.. What do you think? How will Nessa react? I mean after she wake up :D (btw don't worry about her, she's fine :D )**


	5. Meetings

**A/N: Well, here's the next chapter^^ It's sooner that I thought we'll post it and also it's about two times longer than the other we post. Yeyy :DD **

**Thanks for the reviews and follow/favourites :) And also Lots of thanks to Nardhwentheelf^^ **

**Disclaimer: We do not own LOTR or it's characters :\\ Only Grace, Nessa and Pam (sad but true :D )**

Grace's POV

Well, I finally told Nessa that I am a witch and she reacted.. well, better than I thought she would. She woke up after only five minutes and was ready to ask about a million questions. She wasn't mad at me for not telling her, thank God, but she was really excited. She started asking me questions about Middle-Earth and how it really looks. I didn't know what to tell her.. It looks the same but at the same time it doesn't.. It's not cool like she thinks it is. To see all this death and sorrow and to know it is real, not just a fantasy and any moment you might lose your life, or even worse, the people you love. I've never cared about myself too much. I felt death as something natural which is going to come someday, though I was immortal. I felt like I wouldn't live forever but to lose someone who I loved was just so painful. And indeed, I had lost too many people in my life so that I didn't care about my own life anymore. But I couldn't tell Ness those things. She was way too cheerful and a happy person, an opposite to me, and she didn't deserve to face the death and the loss. However, our conversation soon changed to things I didn't minded telling her. She started asking me about the people and if I knew someone from the books and the movies. I told her that I've been to some of the locations which were included in them, and I knew most people. Then she, typically for her, almost immediately asked me if I knew Legolas. I knew him so I told her 'yes', though now I'm regretting it.

It was almost a week after we had arrived and three days after I told my best friend about me. We haven't heard anything about Pam so we got a little worried.

"Shouldn't we go to see her?" asked Nessa once, "just to see if she is okay and then to run before she catches us."

"I don't think it the greatest idea ever but maybe you are right." I said. I couldn't believe it. We were hoping to get rid of her and now we were going to meet her voluntarily.

"Do you know which her room is?" Asked my friend.

"Not exactly but I know where is it placed.." I answered.

We went to find her, though we didn't do that well.

"I'm sure it's somewhere around here..." I said. It was near the gardens, I was sure of it.

"Didn't you said that the last time?" asked Nessa with sarcasm. 'The last time' was when we got lost in one park on The Earth.

"This time I'm really sure." I started convincing her, "It's near. I can almost hear her voice-"

"Wait! It is her voice!" said the other girl, "She's talking with someone." We quickly turned around the next flower bed, just in time to see her talking with.. oh, no! No! No! This-is-not-happening!

"Hey aren't those the twins?!" asked Nessa happily. She was a big fan of Lord Elrond's sons.

"I came here with two friends from my school.." she was explaining to them. Friends.. yeah, right.

"Ness, let's go!" I whispered to my friend's ear. The last thing I wanted now was to be noticed. I knew them and I didn't wanted them to see me right now, especially after they had talked to Pam.

"No, I want to meet them!" She answered. Of course. Every time I want to run out of possibly awkward situations, someone was ruining everything.

"..their names are Grace and Ness-" she was explaining when she saw us. "Oh, there they are!" she pointed at us.

"Act like you haven't seen them!" I told Nessa. This time she listened to me and we both turned to each other, acting like we were in the middle of an important conversation.

"Girls! Hey, do you hear me? Come here! Hello!" screamed Pam. Really? It couldn't get any worse. No, it could, I'm taking my thoughts back!

I turned to them with a smile and started walking towards them. Nessa did the same, whispering to me.

"I though we're going to act like we haven't noticed them."

"But it is obvious that there's no way we can't hear Pam, she's screaming and we're only about fifty meters or even less from them. " I told her. We were almost there so we both quieted down.

"Nice to see you again, Grace." said Elladan when we reached them. He and his brother were absolutely the same – both with long light blue tunics. Pam was sitting on a bench next to them. She looked better than the last time I saw her.

"You were away for a long time." Elrohir finished the sentence.

"My lords." I greeted.

"Since when are you so formal with friends?" asked Elladan. I rolled my eyes.

"I'm trying to be nice, it won't hurt you if you join me" I said.

"..And she's back" said the other twin with a smile.

"Now I'm really confused." said Pam just when I was about to answer the elf. "Do you know one another?"

"I see you've already met Pam." I said and then I felt a poke in the ribs. "This is my friend Nessa." I said, turning to her. "Nessa, you already know who they are."

"Hi." she said, with so big a smile that I thought that her mouth was going to stay like that forever.

"Nice to meet you." They both said together. It was almost shocking how much alike they both were. Of course they were twins but still, it was creepy. Nessa just kept on smiling, even more widely, if that was possible.

"Pam, how's your leg?" I then turned to the other girl.

"Much better, thank you." she answered. I can't believe she didn't mention-

"It's healing well after you shot it."-of course she would. I rolled my eyes again. The twins shared a look and they burst out laughing.

"So you shot her?" asked Elrohir.

"Why am I not surprised at all?" added Elladan. Nessa also laughed.

"I thought you were good warrior." she said.

"I am!" I turned to her, getting already a little nervous. "This was just too unexpected." I added calmly.

"If this was unexpected then I don't want to know what is it when you're expecting it.." said Pam.

"And you wanted to see her?" I almost growled to Nessa. She just smiled mockingly. "Be careful, Ness." I looked at her, grinning. "I promised you something but I'm not sure will I do it if you continue like this." She looked at me, trying to work out if I was serious or if I was bluffing.

"You wouldn't dare." she said.

"Try me." I winked at her. She was about to answer when we heard someone approaching us.

"Ah, here you are." I heard a familiar voice. "I've been looking for you since I heard you had arrived, Lady Grace." It sounded so strange. No one had called me 'Lady' for so long.

"Nice to see you as well, Gandalf." I answered with a smile. "But you know I don't like to be talked to so formally, especially by old friends."

"You haven't changed a bit." smiled the old man. "Ah, these must be your friends who came with you." he said, looking to Pam and Nessa.

"Yes." I said. "This is Nessa," I pointed my friend, "she is my best friend and I'm sure she was looking forward meeting you." Nessa waved and then bowed, or at least tried to. "And this is Pam-" I stopped for a moment. I wasn't sure what to say about her. Surely she was hearing about him for the first time and didn't look as she was glad of the meeting. "She is a girl from my school."

"You didn't explained what school means." one of the twins turned towards Pam. They'd probably asked her when she told them from where she knew me and Nessa but I was too distracted to hear it.

"A hell on the planet, that's what it is" answered Nessa and we all laughed. "And the authorities makes us go there five times a week, nine months a year for 12 years!" Pam added.

"I'm glad to see you whole." I said to Gandalf. "I've heard about your little.. adventure." I finally found the word I was looking for.

"You're full of surprises, Grace." he answered. "I haven't told anyone except Lord Elrond yet."

"You said it by yourself – I'm full of surprises" I said, to get out of the situation. I knew that he didn't believed that I had just understood by the air but he didn't said anything.

"But I'm afraid that you would not stay whole for long time," he told me after a short pause. "a day before I reached Rivendell, I met Lady Violette and all I can say is that you need to hide somewhere, child." he said with humor in his voice, but I knew he was serious deep inside.

"Is she coming here?" I asked feeling chills on my body. She wasn't going to be pleased at all.

"I cannot answer this question, though from what I heard, that was her original idea. She changed her mind when she heard about your arrival." he answered. Great. I was screwed. It's not like I wasn't expecting to come to this soon but I was still hoping that it wouldn't be in the near future. "However, I wanted to talk with you about other things. A lot of things had changed, though I'm sure you know that." I nodded and he continued. "There are several things I want to understand and I'm also sure you'd like to hear some news." I nodded again.

"Just a minute." I turned to the twins "Would you mind doing me a favor?"

"Just say what you want to be done." they answered in unison again.

"Could you entertain Nessa and Pam for a while?" I knew I couldn't ask them that and it probably wouldn't do any good at all but I needed to be sure that Nessa wasn't going to do anything stupid until I returned.

"Of course" Elladan smiled.

"Just say what you would like to do" added Elrohir.

"No thanks." said Pam "I would prefer to go and rest instead."

"Even better!" said Nessa. "I'd like to have some fun today." she smiled, knowing that that's what the twins were best at. This wasn't going to end well. However, I was just about to follow Gandalf when my friend remembered to ask something.

"Wait, has Frodo woken yet?"

"Indeed he has," Answered Gandalf, "but he's still very weak." the last sentence was something of a warning not to trouble him, which I was happy he made.

"And when are the council members arriving?" she asked again. Gandalf looked surprised by her knowledge but he didn't said anything about it and just simply answered with one, "They're already arriving" And then we walked away.

Nessa's POV

It was such a fun day! I met Elladan and Elrohir and Gandalf and soon I was going to meet Legolas! I couldn't wait! Thank God, Pam left and now I could be alone with my favorite characters for a while!

"So.. what do you want to do now, my lady?" asked one of the twins. I wasn't sure which one was it since they were absolutely identical to me.

"Well.. something fun.." I answered smiling. I still couldn't believe it!

"We already heard that," answered the other "but what exactly?" he asked.

"What are the options?" I asked.

"We can go around Rivendell and introduce to everybody you still haven't met, if that is fun for you," said the first twin.

"Or to teach you how to fight with a sword," added the other.

"Or how to use a bow,"

"Or go horse riding,"

"Or hunting,"

"Adar won't be very pleased if we do it, Ro" said the other, which now I assumed, was Elladan.

"Then this one is out," answered Elrohir. "So which one?"

"Well.." everything sounded so amazing! I've always wanted to learn how to fight, I also wanted to meet everyone, but the idea of horse riding sounded so good. Back on Earth I used to do it a lot. I even had my own horse – Cesar. I missed him. "Everything sounds good but can we go horse riding? I love it." I finally said.

"Sure." they both answered.

Grace's POV

We were walking down one of the corridors of the big palace. I was wondering what had Gandalf to tell me, but he was silent and from what I've learned from him, it wasn't good to interrupt his thoughts.

"So how did you arrive?" he finally asked.

"Honestly, I don't know ." I answered truthfully. "Nessa and I were just walking when we saw a blinding light and then we were already here- well, in the Prancing pony"

"But you knew exactly where you are and what is about to happen." I nodded. "And how did you find the other lass? I heard that it was an accident."

"Indeed it was." I said "I almost killed her, or at least that's what she says, I barely even touched her leg with the arrow. It was just before the wraiths' attack."

"And you knew why are these wraiths after you for." He said more like a statement than like a question. I nodded again. "And you knew how it's all going to end." he said again.

"I did" I said.

"What are your future plans, Grace?" He asked. I looked at him, confused. Out of everything he could've asked, this was the last thing I expected.

"What do you mean? I don't have any plans. I was thinking to wait until Violette come and then to return with her, home." I said the word 'home', though I wasn't sure where was this going to be – would Violette return us to The Earth or would we go to East Castle? I wasn't sure. I wanted to stay but I knew that, most likely, Violette wouldn't be on the same page as me. I also wanted to return the others to the places they belonged.

"And what about your friends?" he asked.

"I would find a way to return them back from where we came from." I answered simply. "We came here somehow, then we can return as well."

"There is no way to return." answered the old man. "Not anymore."

"But I've already went to the other planet," I protested "and I've returned back here. There is a way."

"There was." He corrected me. "The evil has grown too much and it is not save to travel through time and space anymore. And even if it was, there isn't an easy way to open a portal."

"But the portal opened for Nessa and I without doing anything special." I said, confused.

"Do you believe in destiny?" Gandalf looked at me with a serious expression.

"Not much. It's not an option, but an easier excuse." I gave him my honest opinion.

"Then took it as a sign that the faith has decided that it was easier to bring you two here that night." he told me. "You're needed here."

"But what about Pam? She didn't even come with us but transported here later, from what I heard."

"Ah, you have a sharp eye for those things." he said, a little more cheerfully. "I believe that Miss Steward had her own reason to be here, though we still don't know what it is." I was trilled by the fact he knew her last name. No one had mentioned it at all. "So what do you think you will do?" he asked again.

"I haven't changed my mind yet." I told him "I still don't plan to do anything special."

"And once you were so open to adventures and ready to go for a new one at every moment young lady" he said "what happened to that girl?"

"She grew up. I'm not young anymore. And I don't like to risk everything." I answered.

"Obviously you might have gotten older, but not wiser." he said.

"How could you say that? You were there the last time I took part in an 'adventure' and we both know how it ended just because of me!" I said angrily.

"Don't blame yourself, girl, it wasn't your fault at all."

"But I could do something to avoid it!"

"And you could die." he added.

"At least I would die fighting for what I love."

"And don't you love Middle-Earth?" he asked. "Don't you want to help to save the people who you love and who love you? I know that you and your friends are aware of how this is going to end."

"They don't have anything to do with it! It's not their fault that they are here!"

"Nor it's yours, but now we're here, talking about it, right?" He said.

"And what should I do?" I asked.

"First of all, why don't you come to the council? I'm sure that you already know what is about to happen there but you can still join us."

"But you also know what will happen." I said, as a matter of fact.

"I have only suggestions." he said. "Now I have to go. If you would excuse me," he said and in the next moment he was gone into the corridors, surprisingly quickly for an old man.

What was all this about? Did he wanted me to join the Fellowship? But why? Except because 'the destiny had said it'?

While I was walking around I suddenly spotted a familiar face. Great, this was the person I needed to talk to!

Nessa's POV

We went to the stables where the twins got three horses out. They were going to ride their own horses, of course, and since I didn't have a horse they had decided that I could use one young mare. Her name was Ruavia. She was really strong and beautiful. She had a long white tail and mane and her body was grey.

"So, do you know how to ride a horse or not?" asked Elladan, I think.

"Yeah, I once had a horse and rode it quite often.." I said, remembering Cesar.

"And what happened?" asked the other twin.

"Then I came here.. " I said, but quickly added, "But I don't regret it at all."

"Good then." smiled Elrohir.

"Are you ready?" asked Elladan.

"Yeah," I also smiled "let's go" We all got onto the horses' backs and rode off.

"Where do you want to go first?" They asked.

"I don't know.. Can we just go around?" I asked them.

"Of course!" They both answered once again with wide smiles.

Grace's POV

"Nice to see you again, Legolas" I greeted the elf.

"Grace, I haven't seen you for a long time." he answered "And I thought I would not again."

"Sorry to disappoint you, but I'm here" I said, smiling. "How are the things going in Mirkwood?" I asked, though I knew.

"Not very well." he answered "When did you arrive?"

"Before about a week ago and you?" it was my turn to ask.

"Yesterday." he said simply.

"I'm sorry, were you going somewhere?" I asked.

"Not really, I was just enjoying my time here." he answered. Perfect.

"Great, I was doing the same." I said. "I arrived with two friends of mine and one of them really wanted to meet you. Would you mind coming and meeting her? I think she is somewhere nearby."

"It would be my pleasure." he answered. Great, I was going to introduce him to Nessa and after that.. well, she was going to scare him with her fangirling but it wasn't my job. I only promised to introduce them.

Nessa's POV

We had been riding for almost two hours and I was getting tired. At first we were riding around Rivendell but then I got bored and the twins decided to give me a tour in the forest. It was quite cool but I didn't really like forests. You know, too many trees and shrubs. My hair always entangled in the branches and in the end of our 'trip' I looked like I had just came out of a mental hospital. Or escaped from it..

"Do you still want to go around?" asked one of the twins. I forgot again who he was.

"Thank you, but I'd prefer to go and have some rest." I kindly declined the offer.

"As you wish." answered the other. "We are going to continue out trip a little longer, would you manage to get to the stables by yourself?" He asked.

"Don't worry about it, I will find the right way." I said. "It was an amazing day, thank you." I smiled at them.

"For nothing." they both answered in full synchronization and after a second were gone.

They had left me in front of the gates so I quickly found my way to the stables which I'd visited before, just to see the horses. I got off from Ruavia's back and took her to her own place in the stable.

"Thank to you too for the nice day." I whispered to her, running my hand down her neck. She pushed me back with her head as a joke but I didn't expect it and she was far too strong, so I staggered and fell in the mud. The mare whinnied cheerfully, obviously amused by the situation. "Hey, it's not funny at all!" I told her, fighting with my laughter. "Okay, maybe just a little" I got up and looked down to my clothes. Now I was totally ready for the asylum. I was covered with mud and my hair was scattered everywhere. I just hoped to get to the room quickly and without meeting anyone important.

I got out of the stables and slipped in one of the long corridors. I was almost at the room when I heard Grace's voice and.. oh, no! It can't be!

"She must be somewhere here, I'm sure we will see her soon" Grace was telling one certain blonde elf, I assumed by the way she was talking, probably about me. She had promised to introduce me to him. Why should this happen two times in one day? And this time I was looking so awful!

I just lay on the floor and start rambling. I was sure that it was quite funny scene but I didn't care as long as I was hidden. 'Come on, I'm so close…' I thought. Only several meters and there was a turn and right after it was the room. I was so close. I couldn't give up now. I wasn't sure from where were the voices coming but I knew they were near. I had almost reached the turn when two huge shadows hovered over me. I looked up just and saw two pairs of shoes – black Converse and brown boots. Crap!

"Ness?" I heard Grace's voice. "What are you doing on the floor looking like you have just ran away from a warg pack?" I then looked up at them. They were both staring down at me, confused.

"Hi." I said smiling like an idiot. "Nice to meet ya."

"Legolas, this is Nessa." started my ex-best friend "and Nessa, this is Legolas." she introduced us to one another awkwardly. He was so perfect and I was so.. covered with mud.

"My lady," he said leaning towards me. "Would you mind?" he asked me reaching his hand for mine to take it. Oh, no.

"Yes I do." I said and then pulled myself from the ground . "It was nice to meet you but now I have to go." With my head held high, as much as it could be in this situation, I walked around them and went in the room, slamming the door behind me. This was the biggest ignominy in my whole life! He wouldn't look at me again after this!

After about five minutes Grace stormed in my room like a hurricane.

"Ness, do you have even an idea what I just went through?" she started talking with a trembling voice. "He is an Elven prince and you just humiliated him like he was nothing! You wanted to meet him so much and now this!"

"I didn't do anything, I just refused to take his arm." I said, like it was really nothing.

"Here that is extremely rude! And I told him that you were looking forward to meet him!" she was almost yelling now.

"Alright, come down, it was nothing." I said.

"Don't expect me to do anything like this for you again." she answered and went out of the room.


	6. Chaos

**A/N: Hey everyone :) How are you guys? :) Here's the new chapter it's even longer than the previous :D I don't know how this happens :D However, I have something like a fear that this story isn't going well and the chapters are becoming pointless and boring lately so the next chapter is going to be about The council because the story had stuck on one place for a long time and it really becames a little stupid in my opinion :D  
However, thanks to everyone who still reads it and to our betaNardhwentheelf :)  
Enjoy^^**

Disclaimer: We do not own LOTR or it's characters.. :\ Only Grace, Nessa and Pam... 

Nessa's POV:

Grace was still a little angry with me about what I did. I felt really strange because I didn't even know why I acted so bad but it was such a crazy day and in the end I was just embarrassed and I wanted to disappear from the situation as soon as possible. It was really awful. However, the Council was in about a week and more and more people, from all races, were coming to Rivendell, every day. I really wanted to go but I wasn't invited so I had to come up with something else to do. After all, Sam, Merry and Pippin also weren't invited but went, right? Then I can do it too… By the way, when I mentioned hobbits… how was Frodo? I went out of my room and went to see where Grace was. When I got to her door, which wasn't very far from mine, I knocked loudly.

"Grace, it's Nessa." I said.

"Come in." I heard her voice from inside. I did what she told me. Her room wasn't very different than mine; there was a bed, a closet and a terrace with an awesome sight of the valley. Grace was sitting next to the bed, staring at some dresses, which were placed on it.

"Are you still mad?" I asked her and she shook her head. "What are all these dresses for?" I asked her.

"There is something like a ball tonight and we're invited. We have to look nice." She answered. "But I don't know what to wear. I've never liked those things…" she added, mostly to herself than to me.

"Oh, why didn't you say earlier?" I got really excited. "I've always wanted to go to a ball, wear a beautiful dress, dance with a prince-"Grace then interrupted me sarcastically.

"You already insulted the last one." she said, "Now would you please help me with the dresses?"

"So what? We can just act like it didn't happened." I answered. "Hey, can you delete his memories or something like that?" I asked, full of hope.

"I can try but the risk of taking his head off during this process is too big." she said, with sarcasm again. "Now the dresses please." She added.

"Wow, someone is in a bad mood today..." I pointed out the obvious.

"Ness, I'm trying to pick up a dress. I haven't worn a dress since I was 10, will you help me, please?" she asked, on the edge of her patience limit.

"Why don't you just wear your Halloween custom?" I asked as a joke but she gave me a deadly look.

"Okay... just calm down…" I said as I stepped up next to her, eyeing the dresses. "Oh, the blue one is beautiful!" I said after a moment. The dress was a light blue color and looked really nice.

"Would you like to wear it then?" she asked me.

"Really?" I asked, not believing her.

"Of course, you have to wear something, right?" She asked.

"Thank you." I said, smiling widely. "And now for you..." I turned to the dresses once more. "What about the purple?" I finally asked about one dark purple dress.

"You think so?" she asked. "However, it can't be much worse than Halloween" she said to herself again.

"Yeah, why not, it looked good on you." I said but she didn't have time to answer me. "Actually, I wanted to ask you; do you want to go and see Frodo and the others?" I asked her.

"Okay, why not. But I think he is already well enough to walk and he's probably not in bed anymore." she said.

"Then let's go find him." I suggested.

After not a very long search we finally found him talking with the other hobbits and Bilbo. Cool, I'll finally meet him as well.

"Hello." Grace said, as we reached then.

"How are you all?" I asked so I wouldn't just be standing there like a statue. "Are you better?" I turned to Frodo.

"Yes, thank you." He said. "I think that we're all good; what about you two?" he asked us.

"Great." We both said at the same time and then laughed about it.

"So are you going to the ball tonight?" asked Pippin.

"Yes," answered Grace, "and what about you?"

"We'll be there." said Merry.

"I haven't seen you for a long time, Grace." Bilbo said finally. "How are the things going?"

"Everything is great." she answered. "Oh, by the way this is my friend Nessa." She then turned to me.

"Oh, so you finally remembered me!" I said and then looked to the hobbit "Nice to meet you. I've heard a lot about your adventures." I told him.

"The pleasure is all mine." he said. "But I also heard about your own adventures and how you came here. "

"But who's talking about it?" I asked, confused.

"Everyone." answered Sam. "The whole of Rivendell had heard about the portal and besides Lady Pam doesn't skip the opportunity to tell everyone about the shot." he added.

"Come on! It's not like I killed her!" complained Grace.

"You almost did." said Pippin.

"Almost! I'm innocent until proven guilty!" Grace argued. The hobbit was ready to start an argument when I interrupted him.

"Don't even try, she's really stubborn." I said.

"Yeah, Nessa knows best." said my friend and winked at me. "Now if you would excuse me," then Grace turned and started walking away.

"Wait, where are you going?" I asked her.

"Don't worry, let's meet after two hours in my room, okay?" she asked.

"But where are you going?" I asked again.

"Oh, I just remembered that I have to do something." She said and walked away, waving to everyone. I looked at the hobbits which also looked a little confused by her actions. These days she was really strange… However, it wasn't time to think about it.

"So, from where do you know Grace?" I asked the old hobbit.

"Oh, it's a long story..." he said and started telling me it.

Grace's POV

I was wandering around Rivendell alone. I haven't really 'remembered something' which I had to do right now but I just felt like I needed to stay alone for a while. It's not like I didn't enjoyed Nessa and the others' company but I wanted to be alone for a while. There were things I wanted to think about without other people around me. However, obviously it just wasn't meant to be because after only about fifteen minutes my thoughts were interrupted by someone.

"Hi." said one unfamiliar boy.

"Hello." I said "Umm… I don't want to be rude, but have we met before?" I asked him.

"I don't believe so." he said "I would have remembered someone as beautiful as you" I smiled awkwardly. He seemed nice, but was he trying to flirt with me?

"Thank you." I said, and was ready to continue my way when he spoke again.

"My name is Easton, and yours?" he asked me.

"I'm Grace." I said and tried to walk away again.

"Beautiful name." he said. "So why are you here, Grace?" he asked me.

"It is my job, don't you think so?" I asked, maybe a little ruder than I had intended to but I really wanted to continue my walk. He looked at me for a little longer for my liking but he finally spoke.

"Okay. And I am just passing through Rivendell. I'm travelling for home." Oh, this was going to be long. "I'm coming from Rohan and you?" he asked again.

"I am from another country" I said. I thought that he might just go away if I acted rudely.

"Great!" he said. "Do you want to go for a walk?" Seriously?

"I was already walking...on my own." I said in a way, which way saying 'And I want to continue alone.'

"Then you must have been very bored." he said. Come on! I just cut you off in every single way! "So where do you want to go?" he asked.

"Look, I was going to meet someone." I said, on the edge of my nerves.

"Who?" he didn't quit.

"Hey, Grace!" I heard Pam's annoying voice, though in that moment I was more than happy about it.

"Her!" I quickly said, pointing to the approaching girl. "Sorry, see ya later!" I said and walked over to Pam.

"Who was he?" she asked immediately "Your boyfriend?" Oh, great, now this was going to tour around the valley faster than any other news.

"No! I would prefer to marry Gollum than him!" I said.

"Who's Gollum?" She asked. OH, yeah, she didn't know this.

"No one, let's go." I said and we walked away.

"Tonight there's a ball. You're invited, too. Come if you want." I told her hoping that she won't.

"Really? That's great! I've always wanted to go to a ball..." she started. This was giving me a strange sense of déjà-vu.

"Wait, wait, wait. About two weeks you hadn't even heard of this place. Since when do you 'always wanted to go on a ball' and so on?" I asked her. She just rolled her eyes.

"I meant on a ball, like... a ball, not a ball like a party in an invented world." she said. I felt this offending and was about to answer when someone else did it before me.

"Hey! Those 'parties' are much cooler than anything you've ever seen before!" said Nessa, joining us. "And it's not just an 'invented world', it's real! We're here, right now!" she added.

"Oh, girls, don't you see it? Nothing is real... it's just a dream, nightmare, actually. Soon I will wake up and I will laugh about it." said Pam, fully believing herself. "Now if you would excuse me, I'm going to prepare myself for 'the ball'." she said and turned around. Nessa was about to say something but I poked her in the ribs to avoid Pam staying in our company for longer.

"Just leave her." I whispered.

"Didn't you hear her? A nightmare… Just wait 'till I catch her..." she started but I interrupted her.

"Don't bother about her. You might not believe it but I was so lucky to meet her today." I said "Anyway, where were you going?" I asked her to change the subject.

"Searching for you, of course!" She said as if it was obvious. "I heard so many interesting things which you haven't told me about yet. And why for God's sake you were lucky to meet Pam?" she asked me.

"You won't believe it but she took me out of such an awkward and awful situation…" I said after I understood I had failed with changing the topic.

"Wait, we're still talking about the same girl, right? Really tall, slim, with long, brown hair. The one who was acting like she didn't know us before about two weeks ago?" Started Pam but I gave her a deadly look. "Okay, okay… so what was so bad that could have been happening to you that you were happy to see her?" she finally asked.

"I met a guy..." I started but she interrupted me again.

"That's great! Why the heck are you happy that she came?" said my friend.

"If you listen to me without interrupting, I will tell you." I said, a little annoyed now. She just nodded. "The point is, he was just going to ask me about tonight; don't say anything;" I added when she was about to say something again, "and I didn't wanted to go with him but he was really kind and I didn't know how to say no when Pam came along and saved me." I finished. Everyone who knew me well knew that I couldn't say 'no', which was actually one of my biggest problems.

"So you met probably the only boy which would invite you on a ball and you declined his request!? And you're happy that you saw Pam? You see – that happens when I'm not around!" she said. Thank God, she wasn't. She probably would have made everything possible so I would go with Easton. However, at that point, something else captured my attention.

"Excuse me?" I said.

"What?" she asked.

"'The only boy which will probably invite me'?" I repeated her words.

"Come on, Grace." She said, trying to excuse herself. "You know you're a great friend and person but everyone knows that you… scare the boys sometimes…" she finished her sentence, choosing her words carefully.

"I scare the boys?" I asked.

"You know… with the way you walk… and the way you talk… and you aren't gentle enough with them…" She almost muttered the last things.

"Not gentle enough? Me?" I asked.

"Do you remember that boy from the last year's school prom? You spilled a glass of water over his head because he had said that you shouldn't be at a prom with jeans." she pointed out.

"It was rude!" I tried to defend myself. "And what about my walking and way of talking?"

"You sometimes move like a man," she said. "and you also talk too rough for a woman, especially when you're mad…"

"I feel comfortable walking like this. And I don't swear… that much." I answered.

"It's not about the swearing… you just… your voice is sometimes scary, when you start shouting you can scare everyone and you also have a problem with nerves." She finished her allegations.

"My voice is just perfect!" I almost yelled and she blinked. "And I don't get too nervous, you make me nervous!" If I wasn't yelling before, I was now.

"You see? Who would like you?" she asked but quickly corrected herself. "I mean when you act so… rudely. You need to try be more patient and to not to shout." Was she right? Was I such an awful person?

"Am I so bad?" I asked.

"No, of course!" she said immediately, "You're a great person with a beautiful soul… you just need to be calmer with the others. And walk like a girl." She added. "Now let's go make you beautiful on the outside, too." she said and we headed my room to get ready.

Nessa's POV

After about two hours we both looked good enough for the ball. I was in the blue dress and my long hair was in a beautiful side-braid. I also had a nice, light eye shadow on my eyes. Luckily I still had Grace's make up for Halloween with me. I had taken it with me when we set off for the party and I found it in my jean pocket about two days ago. Great, wasn't it?

Grace was with her dark purple dress but she almost refused to let me do something with her hair so in the end I just curled it and left her to do what she wanted. She also refused to wear any other make up except eyeliner.

We set off for dinner at about six o'clock. When we got into the hall I gasped in awe. The tables were moved aside so there was a huge empty place in the center of the place. Everything was decorated beautifully. Everyone was already there, and when I'm saying everyone, I mean whole Rivendell plus all of its guests. They were all talking with one another loudly. We finally found a place to sit next to some dwarves and I recognized that one of them was Gimli and next to him was sitting one which looked a lot like his older version, his father, Gloin, I assumed. The dwarves were speaking about the Elvish food and feasts and they didn't sound very pleasant. I giggled quietly. It was kind of fun.

"Elves everywhere!" complained one of the dwarves. "Why are there so many?"

"It hasn't changed much since the last time I was here before so many years" said the one who, I thought, was Gloin.

"But that was almost sixty years ago. Things actually had changed a lot." Grace joined the conversation and I was almost sure she didn't meant that Rivendell had changed, but almost everything else. All eyes turned to her. No one had even bothered to look and see us coming.

"Grace?" Asked Gloin, confused. Since I had heard Bilbo's tale about from where he knew my friend I had understood that once she had some 'dealings' with him and the dwarves while they had travelled to Erebor. She travelled with them for a while, but left their company before they entered Mirkwood. After that they'd met several times again, she went with them to Lake Town and from there the last time they saw her had been during the Battle of the Five armies and after it. However, they got to know her in that time.

"Hi." she said.

"Is it really you? The last thing we'd heard about you was that you'd departed for somewhere far away. I didn't expect to see ya again." he said.

"I also didn't expect it but here I am." she answered simply. "By the way, this is my friend, Nessa." she said, pointing to me.

"Hi." I said, waving to everyone. They just waved back. I wasn't very fond of the dwarves, though I didn't had anything bad in mind for them. Simply I just preferred the elves and right now I was looking for a certain one but I couldn't spot him anywhere.

After about half an hour, everyone had eaten and most of the people started dancing. Grace and I were sitting on the table because there wasn't anyone to dance with. This wasn't a problem for my friend because she didn't like the dancing much and she preferred just watching it but I really wanted to go and dance. I couldn't do it by myself, of course. While I was watching everyone, trying to spot a familiar faces, I sensed someone sitting on the empty seat next to me.

"Hey." I heard an annoying voice and turned just in time to see Pam. She was wearing a red dress, which actually looked quite good on her, though I hated to admit it. "What's up?" she asked me.

"Nothing..." I said, a little annoyed. "Why are you here?" I asked her.

"I was invited." She said and I rolled my eyes.

"No, why are you here?" I pointed the seat she was sitting in. "Why are you here, next to me?"

"Why not? After all, you're the only one I know from here." She said.

"Don't even bother about it; you will wake up soon anyway." I said teasingly.

"Yes," she said, sure of that fact "but 'till then I'm bored and I want to talk to someone."

"Talk with someone else then." I told her "We both know that we're not friends, Pam. If we weren't here, probably we wouldn't even talk right now. She gave me a look, which was saying I was right, though she looked a little offended. I turned to the dance floor once again. Grace was talking with the dwarves and I didn't want to interrupt them. She was trying to act gentle and more girly and I think she was doing well. She wasn't laughing loudly or talking like a tomboy, which was almost surprising. Suddenly one boy approached the table and tried to capture her attention.

"Oh, hey." she said when she saw him. She was trying to do her best but I could say that she didn't looked very pleased to see him, so I assumed this was the boy she was talking about. I didn't see what she didn't like about him. He was tall but looked a little…feeble. He looked a nice person, though. Maybe too conversational for her liking.

"So we meet again." He said, smiling widely. "I was just looking for you." Grace just smiled and remained quiet for that moment.

"Oh, that's your boyfriend from earlier today, isn't he?" said Pam and Grace blushed but it wasn't the kind of blush when you do after a compliment from someone you like or something, it was a blush which was showing that this was the last thing she needed to hear right now.

"He's not my boyfriend." she said. "I just met him."

"Okay, so he's your future boyfriend." said Pam, even surer about this than the fact that she was dreaming.

"Pam! He's not!" exclaimed my friend and then turned to the boy to see his reaction. He was still smiling like nothing had happened.

"So do you want to dance with me?" he asked her.

"Sorry but I don't like dancing much." she said.

"So are you coming?" he asked, still smiling. She looked at me for support but I just encouraged her.

"Go, have fun." she looked at me with a look which made me feel thankful that we were around so many people and she was trying to be calmer.

"Yeah, go!" said Pam. Now she couldn't escape.

Grace just got up, smiling awkwardly and took the boy's hand carefully as she was about to get burned, though most likely at the end of the night he would be the one on flames.

Great! Now I was alone with Pam.

"Was he mentally sick or something or he was just dumb?" she asked after they walked away. I looked at her and sighed.

"I think we both know the answer…" I said and we laughed. It was strange to sit and laugh with her at my best friend but this situation was amusing.

"Now I see the reason why he invited her." said Pam.

"That was rude." I pointed out.

"And so what?" she asked.

"She is my friend and I don't let anyone talk to her like that." I told her and from then we both remained silent. I was still looking around to see if I could spot Legolas, though there wasn't an actual reason because most likely he wouldn't even talk to me after the time we met. If he even remembered me, which, I was hoping, he didn't. Well, luck wasn't on my side, or it was? After about ten minutes in silence I felt someone's hand on my shoulder. I turned around expecting to see Pam but it was actually him. My heart almost stopped.

"Would you like to dance with me?" he asked. I felt the blood running to my face.

"I…I can't" I muttered. What was I saying? Oh, God! I was just about to accept when Pam interrupted our conversation, if you could call it like that.

"I can." she said. "And I'm free if you need a partner." Really? He looked at me one last time.

"Go, she can dance and she is free." I said. It felt so dumb. He then looked at me almost apologetically and turned to her. She was smiling widely, though I was sure she was making it only to tease me.

"I wouldn't if we were friends but since we're not and since I am alone…" she left the sentence unfinished while she was getting up from her seat. Oh, no. It was getting worse and worse with every second. Now I really wished she was just dreaming.

Grace's POV

I was trying to act gentle and nice all evening and what? Everything was falling apart. And thanks to my 'friends' now I had to dance with maybe the most annoying person on Middle Earth.

"So how are you tonight?" he asked me, for maybe fifth time for the last ten minutes. And you know what was most annoying and made you want to punch him in the face? He was smiling all the time.

"Perfect." I forced myself to smile. Thankfully he didn't say anything for the next few… seconds. But I did…

"Ouch." I jumped for millionth time since we started dancing.

"Sorry!" he said after he looked down to see his feet on mine. Again.

"Don't worry," I said trying to calm down. Maybe Nessa was right, maybe I was too much of a nervous person. "everything is…ouch… fine." I said after he moved his feet from mine. Again.

"So are you enjoying the night?" he asked and I and I had to use all my equanimity not to roll my eyes, or even better, make him roll his after I… okay, I'm calm.

"Great" I answered and jumped after he stepped on my foot. A.G.A.I.N.

"You dance very well" he said. Yeah, wish I could say the same for you.

"It's simple." I said "First you move with the one leg, and after that… ouch… with the other. And you try to coordinate your movements with the other person." I added.

"Yes, I know." he said with his tedious smile. Was he smiling or this was just his face? "So tell me about you."

"There is nothing to tell." I answered simply, "I'm just an ordinary girl."

"You're not." he said "You're amazing. I know I we just met but I think I'm in love with you…" he started but I quickly interrupted him.

"Wow, wait a second, I don't think… ouch… that you completely realize what you are saying." I told him.

"No, seriously, I haven't felt anything like this before. I just met you but I feel like I already know you." He said. Really? Don't people always say this? "You're very beautiful and kind and you act just like a real lady." _Really_?

"You're just showing how wrong you are with every word. I'm not beautiful, kind and I'm not a lady for sure." I told him and then added one "Ouch." _AGAIN_!

"No, you're so different than any other girls I've seen. You act so lady-like."

"And you're just like all the boys I've seen." I told him and looked at him coldly.

"No, you don't understand. I see that you're different… sorry!... from everyone else. You're normal."

"I don't think you know me well enough to say what I am." I said.

"I told you I know you." He tried to convince me. I was starting to lose my control already…

Nessa's POV

I was just sitting on the table alone, watching the dancing couples. Some looked happy and in love, other looked only happy and then there were Grace and her… partner. They were dancing for over half an hour now but she didn't look pleased at all. Oh, yeah, I was going to have to say sorry so much after this… They were talking about something and Grace seemed to become more and more nervous with every second. It was a simple dance and they were moving slowly, though she was jumping a little every once in a while when he was stepping on the foot. I moved my gaze not far from them just to see Pam and Legolas, who was also jumping often. I giggled to myself.

"Funny isn't it?" said someone while he was taking the sit next to me. Before I could see who is it I heard a voice from my other side.

"Unless you're the one on whose foot they step." said one of the twins, I wasn't sure which.

"So are you enjoying the ball?" asked the other.

"It's great." I said "But what are you two doing here?"

"You seemed bored sitting here all alone…" started the first.

"So we decided to see what's going on." the second finished the sentence.

"Everything is perfect," I tried to lie, "I am just tired from a lot of dancing."

"Oh, please" said… hmm… I thought it was Elrohir.

"You've been standing here the whole evening." added Elladan.

"But I'm still enjoying the night." I didn't give up.

"Standing here and watching how your friends are having fun?"

"Or at least try to…"

I was just about to answer them when I heard one loud "Ouch!" and after it a series of others, quieter.

Grace's POV

"… and besides everything else you act like a true lady, you don't fight, you don't mess in men's jobs…" I was listening to Easton's absolutely wrong thoughts about me and I was losing control more and more with every second.

"So you say that a girl shouldn't fight?" I asked.

"Of course!" he answered, thrilled by my question. "They should stay home and watch the children."

"And what if they don't want to? What if they prefer to go on the battle field and fight for what they love?" I was almost sure that now he would get out holy water from somewhere just to chase the demons out of me.

"A woman can't fight!" he said.

"I believe a woman can be wiser than a man, stronger than a man, a better fighter than a man, and still just be a woman." I told him. He was so shocked that he stepped on my foot even harder than the last few times. "OUCH!" I said. He looked down and muttered one 'sorry', unable to say anything else so I continued. "I would prefer to die in a battle a million times than to stay aside and watch how everything and everyone I love falls into ruins. If you really knew me you would see this. I'm not gentle or 'lady-like' or anything you say. I am a fighter and I wouldn't quit it just because someone says so." I finished and smiled at him.

"But… but… you can't" he said as he stepped on my foot. Again. AGAIN. A.G.A.I.N!

"I can." I said nervously and placed my foot on his with all of my strength.

"OUCH!" he half-yelled, half-gasped. I just turned around to go back to Nessa and the others but in the last moment I turned back.

"Wait, you didn't step on my foot only once," I said and then I started stepping on his food repeatedly. After I finish with this I took a look around us. "Well, no one seems to notice this so everything is fine." I said more to myself than to him and then walked to the table I was sitting on like nothing had happened.

"Have I ever said that I like those things?" I asked after I sat down next to Nessa. I saw that Elladan and Elrohir had joined her and thankfully, Pam was away, but I didn't care much in that moment.

"I don't believe so." said my friend, looking a little shocked by my anger.

"And there is a reason!" I said. Everyone around me started laughing and I couldn't hold myself back as I started laughing too. I took a look around to see if anyone had saw the scene but they all seemed to be enjoying the night too much to notice me. While I was looking around I saw something that looked totally wrong. Were Pam and Legolas dancing together? I looked at Nessa, who seemed to notice the direction I was looking at.

"Don't even ask." She said. "I didn't wanted to dance anyway" although as she said those words she sounded a little sad.

"Do you want me to break her head?" I asked.

"Forget it." answered Nessa, now a little more cheerfully than before. "It's funny to watch them, though." We both looked at them for a while. He wasn't in much of a better situation than I had been a moment ago. "So are you back?" asked my friend.

"And don't try to change me again." I answered her with a grin.

"I wouldn't even think of it." she said.

"Do you want to dance?" Elladan asked Nessa.

"Well, Grace just came back and…" she started but I interrupted her.

"Go! I'm just great here." I told her. She smiled at me and then they went to join the others on the dance floor.

"I would ask you for a dance but now I don't think it's a good idea." said Elrohir to me then. We both laughed.

"I would decline it anyway." I told him "I'm done with the dancing."

"I'm really sorry but I can't dance anymore, I'm too tired." I heard someone's voice approaching.

"Come on! It just started getting fun!" said Pam but Legolas just looked at her as to say 'sorry but I can't' and sat down on the table.

"Okay, someone else?" asked Pam. "Hey you," she turned to Elrohir, "do you want to dance with me?" he was about to decline but she pulled his arm and dragged him to the dance floor.

"It's hard to escape." said Legolas. "My foot is going to hurt for a long time"

"But it can't be so bad." I said.

"You don't know what it is like when they step on your foot with high heels." he said.

"No," I answered "but my 'partner' does." I laughed but the elf just looked at me, confused. "Anyway. So how did you get stuck in that mess with her?" I asked, looking at Pam's direction.

"I wanted to ask Nessa for a dance but she said she can't, though right now it seems she can, and then Pam suggested a dance with me. I couldn't run away from it." I nodded in understanding.

"Look, I'm really sorry about that." I told him.

"Don't worry, she wasn't such a bad dancer." he answered me sarcastically.

"No, I mean about Nessa, I don't know why she acts so… rudely. Actually she is a different person," I said. I really couldn't understand why she acted like this around him. For me, at least, it was obvious that she liked him but she was too rude, trying not to show it.

"It's nothing." he answered.

"Why don't you ask her now?" I asked him, "she don't have an excuse to decline"

"Except the fact that she's dancing with someone else." he answered.

"Would you like to dance with her?" I asked.

"After I asked her before…" he left the sentence unfinished.

"Then try." I told him. He nodded and stood up.

Well, I hoped that this time finally they would have time to get to know each other and hopefully Nessa would be more like herself.

Nessa's POV

We were dancing quietly. I was actually happy that finally I was dancing and I was enjoying Elladan's company but I still felt dumb after that thing with Legolas and Pam… I knew she was really mean sometimes but this was awful. And only because 'we weren't friends'. I wouldn't do it to her!

"Excuse me," I heard a voice, pulling me out of my thoughts. "may I have one dance?" asked the person I was just thinking about. Not Pam, the other person. I just stared at him. "So… would you dance with me?" he asked again. Okay, maybe I had been staring for too long.

"Have a nice evening." said Elladan when he released my hand so Legolas could take it. I smiled at the dark-haired elf and then he went to sit.

"So… you can't dance?" said Legolas when we were alone. I felt as if I would blush if I look up so I looked down at my feet.

"Well, Pam looked so lonely that I decided that it would be better if you went with her." I finally answered. And smiled, though I was still trying not to meet his gaze.

"Yes, although she looks like a person who often goes to… parties, if I'm not wrong." He answered me.

"Yes, she does. She is almost always at a different one, or she was when we were at home." I said. Why were we talking about Pam? 'You started it' I thought but tried to ignore my 'conscience'.

"What was it like?" he asked me. "The place you come from."

"I liked it." I answered simply. "It was very different from here and though I really wanted to come here now I miss it a little, not the people but the place, my old life." While I was saying it I thought about Grace. Did she felt the same way on Earth? Of course, she had friends there but her life was here. I didn't have anyone except her there so it wasn't so bad for me now and I wanted to be in Middle-Earth but did she want to be on Earth? Did she miss her family and her friends a lot? I looked at her. She was sitting on the table, talking with the dwarves. She seemed happy now, when she was acting like herself again and she was laughing. Now I understood why she was getting on so well with the dwarves. I sighed. She was used to them. She was used to this way of living. This was her home… I smiled to myself. Now, probably it was going to be my home, too.


End file.
